Lee to Music by John Williams: The seven best films to watch on TV this week | television and radio

Pick of the week
lee

Lee Miller’s life is the sadly familiar case of an artist whose work was overlooked because of her collaboration with a famous man, in this case as a model for Man Ray. It is her later career as a war photographer that director Ellen Kuras and leading actress Kate Winslet focus on in their violent film. Winslet – in a role she was born to play – is the magnetic, direct Lee, a woman who won’t take no for an answer. When World War II breaks out, she lands a job as a photographer for Vogue, becomes the focus of the London air raid, the liberation of Europe and, shockingly, the discovery of the death camps, and photographs in anger and shock at the inhumanity she sees.
Friday November 1st, 11:50 a.m., 8:00 p.m., Sky Cinema Premiere

Moon daydream

Brett Morgen’s trippy documentary about David Bowie forgoes the musical basics in favor of a kaleidoscopic look through the performer’s life and personal philosophy, all told in his own voice. Brilliantly compiled from a variety of footage (interviews, performances, films, photos, art, animation), the film begins with Ziggy Stardust and then traces his continued reinventions over the years. It’s far from comprehensive – there’s no Angie Bowie or Tin Machine and hardly anything before Ziggy – but it expresses the shape-shifting quality of a musician who’s always one step ahead.
Saturday October 26th, 10.10pm, Channel 4

Martha

For British readers, Martha Stewart is like a supercharged cross between Delia Smith, Alan Titchmarsh and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen. The first female self-made billionaire in U.S. history, she built an empire of books, magazines and television shows based on insider tips and an aura of homegrown authenticity, but then lost everything when she was sent to prison for lying about a stock trade. Through interviews with her as well as candid excerpts from her diaries and letters, RJ Cutler’s fascinating documentary gives us a real sense of “the original influencer” in all her contradictory glory.
Wednesday October 30th, Netflix

Midas man

Perhaps because he died in 1967 at the age of 32, Beatles manager Brian Epstein didn’t get the spotlight he deserved. Joe Stephenson’s biography attempts, largely successfully, to restore balance. Since there is no original Beatles music in the film (possibly for cost reasons), there is a lot of dancing around the big events, but Epstein’s own life – the expansion of the family’s Liverpool furniture business into music, amphetamine addiction, a secretive, then-illegal sex life – is a lot in itself, and Jacob Fortune-Lloyd plays him with a captivating mix of nervous energy and determined charm.
Wednesday October 30th, Prime Video

Eny’s men

After his inventive no-budget feature debut Bait, Mark Jenkin stayed in Cornwall for a powerful ghost story. Mary Woodvine plays a lonely researcher on a small island in 1973 who is supposed to monitor a clump of inconspicuous flowers. But visions from the town’s past – tin workers, fishermen, a priest – and her own memories begin to interfere with her everyday life. With the grainy look of a recently unearthed old film and a soundtrack in which every sound seems to have meaning, it’s a beautiful, haunting drama.
Thursday, October 31st, 11:15 p.m., Film4

Music by John Williams

After all these years, it’s still a surprise that John Williams is the author of so many great soundtracks. Laurent Bouzereau’s loving tribute to the greatest composer in the history of cinema rightly devotes a lot of time to his long collaboration with Steven Spielberg (Jaws, Raiders of the Lost Ark, ET, Schindler’s List, those five “spiritual” notes in Close Encounters). , but then there’s Star Wars, Home Alone, Harry Potter… The son of a jazz drummer and a dancer, Williams has also found time to conduct and create pieces for the likes of Yo-Yo Ma and Anne-Sophie Mutter. A bringer of joy.
Friday, November 1st, Disney+

Freedom

Actress and director Mélanie Laurent has obviously seized on the success of the Netflix crime series “Lupin”. This fact-based prank about 1970s robber Bruno Sulak (Emily in Paris falls in love with Lucas Bravo) explores Lupin’s romantic “gentleman thief” perspective while chronicling its protagonist’s eventful career. From supermarket robberies in the south of France to jewel thieves in Paris – with a few prison breaks and a love story with accomplice Annie (Léa Luce Busato) – Laurent remains sunny, sexy and largely non-violent.
Friday November 1st, Prime Video